Lipid-Modifying Enzyme: New Target For Pan-Viral Therapeutics

Three different disease-causing viruses -- poliovirus, coxsackievirus, and hepatitis C -- rely on their unwilling host for the membrane platforms enriched in a specific lipid, phosphatidylinositol 4 phosphate (PI4P) on which they can replicate, Rutgers University researchers said on Dec. 7, at the American Society for Cell Biology annual meeting in Denver.

The viruses carry proteins that enable them to gain access to the P14P lipid for replication. The proteins snare one of the host's own lipid-modifying enzymes, a Type III PI4-kinase (PI4-kinase), reported Nihal Altan-Bonnet, Ph.D., of Rutgers University.